Islam Makhachev predicts how the Poirier vs. Oliveira and Gaethje vs. Chandler fights could go
Islam Makhachev has given his thoughts on how Dustin Poirier vs. Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler may go later this year.
The lightweight division is still as stacked as it has been in a long time. While some may disagree with that assessment, the top 15 alone screams ‘talent’ with Islam Makhachev being one of the prime examples. In addition to being a long-time close friend and training partner of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev is turning into a future title contender. It isn’t taking him all too long to do it either.
The fascination of Islam Makhachev
With the two aforementioned match-ups being on the horizon, there’s one man who thinks he’s got a good idea of what’s going to happen - and that’s Islam Makhachev himself.
“Regarding Oliveira/Poirier, I would favour Poirier, because he’s been there and done that, fought all of the toughest guys, all the top guys - that’s why I would pick him.”
“As for Gaethje/Chandler, it’s a great fight for the fans. I think everybody looks forward to it - even more than Poirier/Oliveira. I think they will just rumble and show us a good scrap and I believe Gaethje is a bit tougher. Chandler hasn’t fought such tough opponents in the UFC yet but Gaethje has fought everybody. I think it’s like 60/40 that Gaethje will win.”
Islam Makhachev has always been a “what you see is what you get” type of character and that’s probably why he’s been so successful. Everyone knows what he’s going to bring to the table and what style of fight he’s going to have. Despite him seemingly being “predictable”, he’s come out firing in his last few outings with performances that have proved why he’s a top five competitor.
Can he reach the next level and become a fully-fledged, elite title contender? It’s definitely possible, but he’ll likely have to go through at least two of these four individuals to do it, which is the definition of a daunting task.